B-25B Mitchell bombers aboard the USS Hornet (CV-8) during the Doolittle Raid. (Wikimedia)
Chris Byrd, The Bridge/RCD: Bombers over Tokyo: The Strategic Importance of Doolittle’s Raid
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was determined to avenge the December 7, 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. The attack enraged and shocked the American public. It seemed the national mood would only worsen as news of Japan’s follow-on victories at Wake Island and in Thailand, Hong Kong, Manila, and Singapore made its way onto American airwaves and newspapers. Japan appeared unstoppable. To prevent the national mood from deteriorating further, President Roosevelt pressed his advisors for a military win to raise morale and support for the inevitable two-front war. The president insisted they “find ways and means of carrying home to Japan proper, in the form of a bombing raid, the real meaning of war.”[2] His advisors developed a bold plan to launch sixteen modified land-based bombers from an aircraft carrier, and eighty brave men stepped forward to carry out the first strike on Japan’s homeland. That strike would become known as the famous Doolittle Raid.
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WNU Editor: I have always been a student of this specific raid. It's reach and impact at the beginning of the war can never be under estimated.
1 comment:
This raid did indeed shake the Japanese military's self image and they responded. The book Shattered Sword discusses this raid and it's impact on Japan's future plans at the time. One of my top favorite books. The Barrier and the Javelin is a keeper also.
Roger
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